2012 Year in Review

 2012 Year in Review

Highlights:

• Continued Temporary Duty (TDY)  six month assignment to Riyadh Saudi Arabia with OMP/MOI until May. The program was a Joint Government project of Saudi Arabia/Ministry of Interior/Office of Program Management and United States agencies including DOD, FBI, DEA, FAA, Treasury and other agencies providing training and mentoring for the country's infrastructure support.  I worked at the embassy mostly coordinating support activities for the project.  We lived on the embassy compound and were pretty much confined except for weekends.
  
  

  

  Weekly 10 mile Wadi Walk

  

  Doris and me with my
  counterpart Ahmed

   
  

            For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Traveladventures.blogspot Riyadh

• While in Riyadh we made trips to Jordan and Muscat, Oman.  In Jordan we visited the capital Amman, Jerash, The Dead Sea, Kerak and Petra.  

Petra

Dead Sea

    

        

For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Traveladventures.blogspot - Jordan;         and, Doris and Bill Travel Adventures.blogspot - Muscat

Main Market

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

• In August we went to Ireland for a Meehan family reunion in County Sligo but first rented a car and travelled to County Cork, Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula and Galway where we stayed with our cousins Gerard and Collette Lavin.  

Cliffs of Moher

Doris kissing the Blarney Stone 

  

For more photos see Doris and Bill Travel adventures blog - Travel in Ireland

• August 2-5 Meehan family reunion in County Sligo.

Father Kelly with Eileen 

  

Chris and Debbie with Mary Kennedy

For more photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures blog - Ireland Family Reunion.

• Travel to Belfast and Dublin

Belfast City Hall

Titantic Museum 

Meeting up with Bob and Rosemarie

                        Dublin Castle

For more information and photos:                 https://dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com/20 12/08/belfast-ireland-2012.html

• September 23 took Patrick and Jayden (5 years old) to the Washington Nationals game and saw the Nationals lose ot the Brewers 6-2. After the game game Jayden participated in "Kids Run the Bases".

• In October we planned to take a cruise from Athens to Istanbul but before leaving we spent a few days seeing the sights in Athens and went on a day trip to Meteora.

The Great Meteoron Monastery

Doris at the Parthenon

       

• We then hooked up with a former embassy colleague Costas Abatzidis and his wife Marie.  They drove us up to their village in Northern Greece near the Macedonian border.

        

With Costas and Marie at his village in Veriko

Icons in the Mavriotissa Monastery in Kastoria

For more photos and narrative see:  https://dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com/2012/10/greece-2012.html?view=timeslide

• We had previously booked a 10 day cruise on the Oceania Marina from Athens toIstanbul October 22 to November 1.

• We went first to the islands of Patmos and Rhodes  

St. John Monastery on Patmos

                      

    

The Citadel in Rhodes

For more photos and narrative see:

http://dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com/2012/10/patmos-and-rhodes-med-cruise-2012.html?view=timeslide

• We then docked at Ashdod and then Haifa and spent two days in Jerusalem, the Holy Land and Israel.  

Mt. of Olives above Jerusalem

Bahia Gardens above the Port of Haifa

              Manger Square Bethlehem                                         Doris in the Grotto of the Nativity 

For more photos and narrative see:
                                                                                                                                                                      

 and narr

http://dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com/2012/10/tel-aviv-haifa-and-jaffa-med-cruise-2012.html?view=timeslide

• September 23 took Patrick and Jayden, age 5,  to the Washington Nationals game and saw the Nationals lose ot the Brewers 6-2. After the game game Jayden participated in "Kids Run the Bases".

• In November we toured the Hunley Submarine with the Low Country Explorers at the old naval base at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center. It is a high-tech lab specifically designed to conserve the vessel and unlock the mysteries of her disappearance.

 

              The Hunley is Sunk                                                          The Crew of the Hunley

• November 26 we visited Beaufort and went kayaking on hunting island.

• December 30 we attended the San Francisco 49er vs. Arizona Cardinals at Candlestick Park.  The 9ers won 27-13 to win the NFC West title.  

Doris with Kaitlin Colbourn, Nephew Greg and

 Nikki, Cousin Ken, Chris and Debbie